Egypt retracted earlier reports about the detention of Seif al-Adel, a leading figure in al-Qaeda terrorist network. The early reports on Wednesday claimed he was detained in Cairo international airport after getting off a plane from Pakistan. Al-Adel had briefly taken over management of the network after the death of Osama bin Laden.
However, later Egypt said the man detained, Muhammed Makawi, has the same name as the number three figure of al-Qaeda.
Sources said that Makawi has been wanted by Egypt since 1994 in Supreme State Security Case No. (502), without clarifying what are the accusations made against him. He is considered as a trainer of Jihadists.
Adel is in his late 40s. He joined the fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1988. There he met Osama bin Laden and joined al-Qaeda. He supervised the training of fighters on the use of explosives.
